MU Faculty Council recommends change to future finals schedules

COLUMBIA — The MU Faculty Council passed a proposal this week to move Reading Day each semester from Friday to Thursday.

Voting unanimously, the council urged the administration to adopt the proposal before the fall 2009 semester.

Under the policy change, classes would end Wednesday, with no classes Thursday and finals beginning Friday. Exams would end the following Thursday.

According to council member David Trinklein, the change was recommended to avoid a conflict between exams and graduation ceremonies, which typically start on a Friday. It also provides
an extra weekday so exams canceled by weather or other factors would not need to be
held on Saturday.

The remaining Friday would be reserved for individual makeup exams or to reschedule a canceled day of finals.

The council sets the academic calendar, but ultimately it is approved by the UM System Board of Curators.

Council member Frank Schmidt asked that the change include wording to prevent graduations from being moved to Thursday in response to the new schedule.

"With all respect to deans and directors, interfering with exam week is not within their prerogative except in very special cases," Schmidt said.

Although the calendar for the next academic year has already been approved, council Chairman Tom Phillips said he believed a change could be imposed next fall but was waiting for final word from system administrators.